New schools

English has borrowed school from Latin. The Latin word, schola, is easily recognisable when we look at the word. When we hear it, it is much more difficult to see the relationship: /∫ola/ vs. /sku:l/. And the plural form is also quite different: scholae # schools. English school was later borrowed by Setswana, a Bantu language spoken in Botswana. As Setswana does not have /sk/, a vowel was introduced between the two sounds, which makes it sekole. Plurals in Setswana are not formed by changing the end of the word but by changing the beginning of the word. The group of nouns to which sekole belongs forms its plural by replacing se- by di-. So we end up with dikole. At the end of the chain, dikole corresponds to scholae. One must have a very sharp eye to detect that they are related. (Janson, Tore: Språkens historia. o.O.: Norstedts, o.J.: 48-9)